Scratch the Surface
Scratch the Surface: Urusei Yatsura – We are Urusei Yatsura (1996, Ché Records)
If you long for those messy days of the mid-90s, where Glasgow seemed to be a melting pot of angular, noisey, and messy indie rock and roll and pop punk, inhabited by Bis and Mogwai and the likes, then this is the Scratch the Surface for you, as it features fine purveyors of such things …
Scratch the Surface: Children of the Bong – Sirius Sounds
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll have heard Children of the Bong somewhere. Taking in techno, electronic, and psychedelic music, they released three demos and one, brilliant album, Sirius Sounds. Meeting at Harrow College, Daniel Goganian and Rob Henry never quite hit the heights their music perhaps deserves, through luck and circumstance, but this …
Scratch The Surface: The Jasmine Minks – Scratch the Surface (Creation Records, 1989)
Formed in Aberdeen in 1983 by Jim Shepherd (guitar/vocals), Adam Sanderson (vocals/guitar), Martin Keena(bass guitar), and Tom Reid (drums/vocals), The Jasmine Minks were a staple on the 80s indie scene, and after sending a demon to Melody Maker, were gobbled by Alan McGee’s fledgling Creation Records. From there they released four albums and four singles …
Scratch the Surface: The Passmore Sisters – First Love, Last Rites (Sharp Records, 1988)
Scratch the Surface is a pretty new development in the Backseat cannon, providing long reads of forgotten, under-appreciated or just classic albums from the outskirts of pop music. Bradford’s The Passmore Sisters are a case in point. Formed by Howard Taylor, Martin Sadofski, Peter Richardson and Adrian Lee, they clearly weren’t sisters, but through a …
Feature: Scratch the Surface: The Wolfhounds albums Bright and Guilty / Blown Away (1989), and an interview with Dave Callahan
THE WOLFHOUNDS formed in Romford, Essex in 1984, plying their trade in the local Rezz Club before playing gigs further afield, notably at The Clarendon in West London. Debut single “Cut The Cake” arrived in February 1986, gaining single of the week status in all three of the main music papers. Sadly, early critical success …
Feature: Scratch the Surface – 14 Iced Bears self-titled album, and an interview with Rob Sekula
14 Iced Bears: ‘14 Iced Bears’ ( Thunderball Records 1988 ) “Only the dust remains…” Background Formed in 1985, 14 Iced Bears released three excellent records on the short lived Frank label before moving to Sarah Records in 1988.There they released a three track 7” single ( two songs of which also appeared on the …